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This just confirms Paypal is another criminal bank in this criminal financial system. I can't imagine it would have been possible ten years ago for any 'bank' real or fake to seize someones money as a procedural delay for 3 months. What an abuse of a monopoly.

Paypal is not a bank, they can pretty much do whatever they want lol. They make their own rules.

If Paypal goes out of business there is no FDIC insurance, they fold (which wouldn't happen) & everybody is out of money. In 2007, the FDIC has deemed them a internet money transfer service & as long as they don't accept direct deposits it won't be considered a bank. In Europe however it does have a banking license.

I spent a good month after my account was frozen researching the ins & outs of Paypal & learned a ton of BS they do. There are tons of people who have their accounts frozen from eBay transactions having 10,000+ Positive Feedback & NO customer complaints. I have read so many horror stories that every time I make a withdraw I cross my fingers it isn't followed by an email saying my account is locked.

Whenever I do send X number of payments to certain people, I can almost guarantee Paypal will call me & ask about the type of transaction it was, how do I know the person, what the item(s) was & was it an eBay transaction? I have their number programmed in my phone because I have read if you don't answer their phone call, they will lock your account & say they couldn't get in touch with you & after that comes all of the hoops you have to jump through. (I.E. - prove your phone number, address, drivers license, SS#, etc)

This just confirms Paypal is another criminal bank in this criminal financial system. I can't imagine it would have been possible ten years ago for any 'bank' real or fake to seize someones money as a procedural delay for 3 months. What an abuse of a monopoly.

They sent me an email saying there was suspicious activity & they needed my license, a bill to my confirmed address, phone bill to verify the number they had on file etc all to be faxed to them.

I figured no problem & sent them what they asked for.

They then emailed me back saying the fax wasn't clear. I went to Fedex/Kinkos & the fax was fine. So I did it again & they sent an email saying they needed a fax of my social security card & a credit card statement in my name to my confirmed address. I felt like that was way too much information to be sending to India. (And before you ask, this was not a scam, always updated IN Paypal & always verified by calling Paypal).

So finally when I told them I wasn't going to send them a copy of my SS# & credit card information, they told me they are locking my account for 180 days (6 months) & I'll have to wait until that time is up to withdraw my money or request a check.

After all this happened to me, I started doing my research & it seems Paypal shuts down a TON of accounts every day for any kind of reason.

I now never send any payments as gift or anything personal through the Paypal account that I still have running. If that account were to also be locked, my business would be devastated.

They are cracking down on money laundering and I guess with all of the gift payments being sent every which direction it's easy to launder money around.

EDIT:
I would advise to never keep any kind of substantial amount of money in the account because Paypal can lock it at any moment without a reason. Paypal is NOT a bank, they don't have the same rules as banks do. Paypal can & will lock your account for any reason they see fit. They have over 10k of mine locked up for 6 months invested in a money market account gaining THEM interest. Will I see any of that interest? NO.

I have read that at any given time Paypal has over $1 Billion dollars locked up collecting interest.

I have been trying to tell people this for years. I sweep out most of my money on a regular basis for that reason.

__________________Maybe if I stick your head through that window over there you'll get unconfused. Give me the feckkin money. -- Nicky Santorohttp:/www.photobucket.com/nd3

You would think that SOME company would come along and offer at LEAST a reduced fee schedule. I don't know why anyone would use Paymate, etc, because the freakin' fees are HIGHER. It's crazy. Just think, if an alternative company charged every customer $1 per month, and got 50 million subscribers, it would be an enormous business.

I wonder if the combo of Ebay / Paypal will ever be broken up in court...

Not a bank just because they say they aren't and are therefore excempt from regulations? They keep your money. You use them to make payments. They charge fees for just about everything. They put the fear of god in people. They are a bunch of thieves.

I'll tell ya what's crazy the last two deals I didn't even ask for gift and I got it anyway. I am about to change my threads to say pay goods so they know. Is there a way to have a sig in your PM replies?

Thanks for the heads up....I feel bad sometimes sending gift to ppl now. I always figured I was doing them a favor saving them money. I guess the one nice thing now is always having the ability to have an easily made shipping label with cheap DC .

Chaddie, you are right. I feel that paying gift is another way to show that you respect and trust the member. Word is getting around and we need everyone to fully understand the situation. Paying gift just won't be smart for anyone anymore. Then again alot of sellers do the "$13 Gift $15 Regular" bit anyway...

To the people calling paypal criminal...you know you were breaking rules yourself right? Gift was created so people could send a bday gift, a personal loan to children etc. without fees. Your abuse of the gift method could possibly screw over those people legitimately using it.

To the people calling paypal criminal...you know you were breaking rules yourself right? Gift was created so people could send a bday gift, a personal loan to children etc. without fees. Your abuse of the gift method could possibly screw over those people legitimately using it.

Paypal is criminal to hold peoples money for reasons they keep to themselves. This is one common grievance. What next? You wanna defend poor oil companies for just doing their jobs.

Wow, I would be so mad having 10k frozen..you are missin out on those chase packs , but seriously we should have realized something was coming. There are a lot of transactions on here paid by gift and Paypal not getting their fees from any of them probably caused some eyebrows to be raised.

I guess this is just Paypal showing their muscle because if you are a seller on eBay you need paypal and if you want to send and receive money online then you don't have many other options.

I would rather not save on the fees by using gift then have my account suspended/frozen.

__________________Still collecting Vikings/Phillies /76ers/Flyers(do not have to be in team uniform, just have to have been on the roster)

Trying to put together 2005 SP Authentic SOTT Dual Autograph set (Football) PM me with any that you may have

I feel bad for Rick or anyone else who was using gift too much. I am thankful that we have this thread now to quote to everyone else. I've been trying for about a year, by PMs, to convince sellers that gift isn't a good idea and paypal is watching.

Best to All,
VinnyH
PS: I still owe Rick some Marlins slides once I get into my attic. haven't forgotten.

__________________
I may not be the oldest member here but I paid $8. an auto and shook Joe DiMaggio's hand at the Armenian Church in NYC once. I do not use "gift". If you need an extra buck, add it in.

I feel bad for Rick or anyone else who was using gift too much. I am thankful that we have this thread now to quote to everyone else. I've been trying for about a year, by PMs, to convince sellers that gift isn't a good idea and paypal is watching.

Best to All,
VinnyH
PS: I still owe Rick some Marlins slides once I get into my attic. haven't forgotten.

Nothing to feel bad about, it is what it is lol.

What sparked Paypals initial attention was there was a stretch when my brother was deployed overseas with the Army to Germany. He tried to use his civilian bank card to buy some stuff & the bank here in the USA froze his account on a fraud alert. The bank knew he was in the Army because they had previously frozen his account a couple years prior while he was in Germany before. He had to call them & tell them he was actually there, etc & they assured him it wouldn't happen anymore. Fast forward a few years later & they froze his account again. He was fed up with that bank & decided to switch banks. So while he was transferring all his money to a new bank he needed a couple bucks to get by while all his transfers were going through & I gifted him a few different payments totally about $1,200 over the course of 2 weeks. (Keep in mind $1,200 is about $700 euros). Same last name & everything, Paypal froze my account.

It could have been that I was sending Gift payments overseas & that Paypal is really trying to crack down on money laundering. Not sure.

After they froze my account, they started an investigation on my account activity. That particular account had easily $200,000 in sales over the last 14 months & when they started investigating that account it was around Christmas time & I was selling a lot of brand new Apple products on eBay. I really ramped up my sales like I have done years prior due to it being the holiday season. I had over $15,000 in sales in the first 2 weeks of December alone with a lot of it being brand new Apple iPods. They sent me an email asking for invoices from my suppliers, my supplier telephone number & address & his supplier. A lot of crazy stuff. I supplied all of the information & they ruled that even though I had direct suppliers from Apple (all legit) that it was too risky. I've never had any issues with eBay or Paypal before this & had a ton of money go through the account with buying & selling. To them brand new electronics carry a risk & they decided to freeze my account for 180 days to make sure nobody had to file a credit card charge back. (Someone can file a credit card charge back on any Paypal purchase 180 days or 6 months from the time of purchase). So after 180 days, I'll be out of Paypal jail I suppose. lol

Also, even though Paypal had an issue with my volume and/or the type of items I was selling around Christmas time, never once did I get a message from eBay or suspended from eBay for the items/volume I was doing. It seems eBay was fine with it & Paypal wasn't. I just thought it was odd one would "suspend me" while the other let me keep going.

Because of all this, I've done a ton of research about Paypal & have learned to not keep hardly any money in the current account I stay have open & if anybody has any questions I can do my best to answer them with the research I have done. lol

They sent me an email saying there was suspicious activity & they needed my license, a bill to my confirmed address, phone bill to verify the number they had on file etc all to be faxed to them.

I figured no problem & sent them what they asked for.

They then emailed me back saying the fax wasn't clear. I went to Fedex/Kinkos & the fax was fine. So I did it again & they sent an email saying they needed a fax of my social security card & a credit card statement in my name to my confirmed address. I felt like that was way too much information to be sending to India. (And before you ask, this was not a scam, always updated IN Paypal & always verified by calling Paypal).

So finally when I told them I wasn't going to send them a copy of my SS# & credit card information, they told me they are locking my account for 180 days (6 months) & I'll have to wait until that time is up to withdraw my money or request a check.

After all this happened to me, I started doing my research & it seems Paypal shuts down a TON of accounts every day for any kind of reason.

I now never send any payments as gift or anything personal through the Paypal account that I still have running. If that account were to also be locked, my business would be devastated.

They are cracking down on money laundering and I guess with all of the gift payments being sent every which direction it's easy to launder money around.

EDIT:
I would advise to never keep any kind of substantial amount of money in the account because Paypal can lock it at any moment without a reason. Paypal is NOT a bank, they don't have the same rules as banks do. Paypal can & will lock your account for any reason they see fit. They have over 10k of mine locked up for 6 months invested in a money market account gaining THEM interest. Will I see any of that interest? NO.

I have read that at any given time Paypal has over $1 Billion dollars locked up collecting interest.

They have been forced to make changes

They cannot ask for account numbers from Credit cards except for verification of those on file and only the last 4.

They cannot ask for your SS# any more but can demand multiple utility bills.

The one thing that stops them dead is a photocopy/Fax of your current Tax records.
See, to question that they will have to file a dispute with the IRS under its fraud rules relating to Tax Identification information,who will then get involved and paypal doesn't cross the IRS

Per gifts...big damn deal
Paypal is a waste after this year and ebay is a joke in June

Going to start looking for a superior alternative and push it like a mad man